Within processing equipment, a gate valve may be utilized, for example, to control pressure within a process chamber and/or to control the flow of reactive species, process gases, byproducts from a process, or the like from a processing volume. Gate valves typically include a gate disposed in a gate valve body and selectively movable between two positions—a closed position where the gate seals an opening in the gate valve and an open position where gases may flow through the opening in the gate valve. Unfortunately, however such gases can undesirably flow into a recess of the gate valve body where the gate is disposed when in the open position and may form deposits or corrode the gate (or other components of the gate valve). Such deposits can undesirably break free, for example, by a pressure change in the process chamber, by vibration due to operation of the gate valve, or the like, which can lead to undesirable contamination of a substrate being processed in the chamber.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved gate valve.